OpenRaiser/Intern-Atlas huggingface dataset:
DroidBot-GPT: GPT-powered UI Automation for Android
Venue: arXiv cs.SE 2024
Year: 2024

This paper introduces DroidBot-GPT, a tool that utilizes GPT-like large language models (LLMs) to automate the interactions with Android mobile applications. Given a natural language description of a desired task, DroidBot-GPT can automatically generate and execute actions that navigate the app to complete the task. It works by translating the app GUI state information and the available actions on the smartphone screen to natural language prompts and asking the LLM to make a choice of actions. Since the LLM is typically trained on a large amount of data including the how-to manuals of diverse software applications, it has the ability to make reasonable choices of actions based on the provided information. We evaluate DroidBot-GPT with a self-created dataset that contains 33 tasks collected from 17 Android applications spanning 10 categories. It can successfully complete 39.39% of the tasks, and the average partial completion progress is about 66.76%. Given the fact that our method is fully unsupervised (no modification required from both the app and the LLM), we believe there is great potential to enhance automation performance with better app development paradigms and/or custom model training.
Chop Chop: Byzantine Atomic Broadcast to the Network Limit
Venue: arXiv cs.DC 2024
Year: 2024

At the heart of state machine replication, the celebrated technique enabling decentralized and secure universal computation, lies Atomic Broadcast, a fundamental communication primitive that orders, authenticates, and deduplicates messages. This paper presents Chop Chop, a Byzantine Atomic Broadcast system that uses a novel authenticated memory pool to amortize the cost of ordering, authenticating and deduplicating messages, achieving "line rate" (i.e., closely matching the complexity of a protocol that does not ensure any ordering, authentication or Byzantine resilience) even when processing messages as small as 8 bytes. Chop Chop attains this performance by means of a new form of batching we call distillation. A distilled batch is a set of messages that are fast to authenticate, deduplicate, and order. Batches are distilled using a novel interactive protocol involving brokers, an untrusted layer of facilitating processes between clients and servers. In a geo-distributed deployment of 64 medium-sized servers, Chop Chop processes 43,600,000 messages per second with an average latency of 3.6 seconds. Under the same conditions, state-of-the-art alternatives offer two orders of magnitude less throughput for the same latency. We showcase three simple Chop Chop applications: a Payment system, an Auction house and a "Pixel war" game, respectively achieving 32, 2.3 and 35 million operations per second.
The Art of Camouflage: Few-Shot Learning for Animal Detection and Segmentation
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Camouflaged object detection and segmentation is a new and challenging research topic in computer vision. There is a serious issue of lacking data on concealed objects such as camouflaged animals in natural scenes. In this paper, we address the problem of few-shot learning for camouflaged object detection and segmentation. To this end, we first collect a new dataset, CAMO-FS, for the benchmark. As camouflaged instances are challenging to recognize due to their similarity compared to the surroundings, we guide our models to obtain camouflaged features that highly distinguish the instances from the background. In this work, we propose FS-CDIS, a framework to efficiently detect and segment camouflaged instances via two loss functions contributing to the training process. Firstly, the instance triplet loss with the characteristic of differentiating the anchor, which is the mean of all camouflaged foreground points, and the background points are employed to work at the instance level. Secondly, to consolidate the generalization at the class level, we present instance memory storage with the scope of storing camouflaged features of the same category, allowing the model to capture further class-level information during the learning process. The extensive experiments demonstrated that our proposed method achieves state-of-the-art performance on the newly collected dataset. Code is available at https://github.com/danhntd/FS-CDIS.
Limited Diffusion of Scientific Knowledge Forecasts Collapse
Venue: arXiv cs.SI 2024
Year: 2024

Market bubbles emerge when asset prices are driven unsustainably higher than asset values and shifts in belief burst them. We demonstrate the same phenomenon for biomedical knowledge when promising research receives inflated attention. We predict deflationary events by developing a diffusion index that captures whether research areas have been amplified within social and scientific bubbles or have diffused and become evaluated more broadly. We illustrate our diffusion approach contrasting the trajectories of cardiac stem cell research and cancer immunotherapy. We then trace the diffusion of unique 28,504 subfields in biomedicine comprising nearly 1.9M papers and more than 80M citations and demonstrate that limited diffusion of biomedical knowledge anticipates abrupt decreases in popularity. Our analysis emphasizes that restricted diffusion, implying a socio-epistemic bubble, leads to dramatic collapses in relevance and attention accorded to scientific knowledge.
IP-FL: Incentivized and Personalized Federated Learning
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Existing incentive solutions for traditional Federated Learning (FL) focus on individual contributions to a single global objective, neglecting the nuances of clustered personalization with multiple cluster-level models and the non-monetary incentives such as personalized model appeal for clients. In this paper, we first propose to treat incentivization and personalization as interrelated challenges and solve them with an incentive mechanism that fosters personalized learning. Additionally, current methods depend on an aggregator for client clustering, which is limited by a lack of access to clients' confidential information due to privacy constraints, leading to inaccurate clustering. To overcome this, we propose direct client involvement, allowing clients to indicate their cluster membership preferences based on data distribution and incentive-driven feedback. Our approach enhances the personalized model appeal for self-aware clients with high-quality data leading to their active and consistent participation. Our evaluation demonstrates significant improvements in test accuracy (8-45%), personalized model appeal (3-38%), and participation rates (31-100%) over existing FL models, including those addressing data heterogeneity and personalization.
TagCLIP: Improving Discrimination Ability of Open-Vocabulary Semantic Segmentation
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Contrastive Language-Image Pre-training (CLIP) has recently shown great promise in pixel-level zero-shot learning tasks. However, existing approaches utilizing CLIP's text and patch embeddings to generate semantic masks often misidentify input pixels from unseen classes, leading to confusion between novel classes and semantically similar ones. In this work, we propose a novel approach, TagCLIP (Trusty-aware guided CLIP), to address this issue. We disentangle the ill-posed optimization problem into two parallel processes: semantic matching performed individually and reliability judgment for improving discrimination ability. Building on the idea of special tokens in language modeling representing sentence-level embeddings, we introduce a trusty token that enables distinguishing novel classes from known ones in prediction. To evaluate our approach, we conduct experiments on two benchmark datasets, PASCAL VOC 2012, COCO-Stuff 164K and PASCAL Context. Our results show that TagCLIP improves the Intersection over Union (IoU) of unseen classes by 7.4%, 1.7% and 2.1%, respectively, with negligible overheads. The code is available at https://github.com/dvlab-research/TagCLIP.
MS-LSTM: Exploring Spatiotemporal Multiscale Representations in Video Prediction Domain
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

The drastic variation of motion in spatial and temporal dimensions makes the video prediction task extremely challenging. Existing RNN models obtain higher performance by deepening or widening the model. They obtain the multi-scale features of the video only by stacking layers, which is inefficient and brings unbearable training costs (such as memory, FLOPs, and training time). Different from them, this paper proposes a spatiotemporal multi-scale model called MS-LSTM wholly from a multi-scale perspective. On the basis of stacked layers, MS-LSTM incorporates two additional efficient multi-scale designs to fully capture spatiotemporal context information. Concretely, we employ LSTMs with mirrored pyramid structures to construct spatial multi-scale representations and LSTMs with different convolution kernels to construct temporal multi-scale representations. We theoretically analyze the training cost and performance of MS-LSTM and its components. Detailed comparison experiments with twelve baseline models on four video datasets show that MS-LSTM has better performance but lower training costs.
A Comprehensive Evaluation of Neural SPARQL Query Generation from Natural Language Questions
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

In recent years, the field of neural machine translation (NMT) for SPARQL query generation has witnessed significant growth. Incorporating the copy mechanism with traditional encoder-decoder architectures and using pre-trained encoder-decoders and large language models have set new performance benchmarks. This paper presents various experiments that replicate and expand upon recent NMT-based SPARQL generation studies, comparing pre-trained language models (PLMs), non-pre-trained language models (NPLMs), and large language models (LLMs), highlighting the impact of question annotation and the copy mechanism and testing various fine-tuning methods using LLMs. In particular, we provide a systematic error analysis of the models and test their generalization ability. Our study demonstrates that the copy mechanism yields significant performance enhancements for most PLMs and NPLMs. Annotating the data is pivotal to generating correct URIs, with the "tag-within" strategy emerging as the most effective approach. Additionally, our findings reveal that the primary source of errors stems from incorrect URIs in SPARQL queries that are sometimes replaced with hallucinated URIs when using base models. This does not happen using the copy mechanism, but it sometimes leads to selecting wrong URIs among candidates. Finally, the performance of the tested LLMs fell short of achieving the desired outcomes.
Dynamics-Based Algorithm-Level Privacy Preservation for Push-Sum Average Consensus
Venue: arXiv cs.MA 2024
Year: 2024

In the intricate dance of multi-agent systems, achieving average consensus is not just vital--it is the backbone of their functionality. In conventional average consensus algorithms, all agents reach an agreement by individual calculations and sharing information with their respective neighbors. Nevertheless, the information interactions that occur in the communication network may make sensitive information be revealed. In this paper, we develop a new privacy-preserving average consensus method on unbalanced directed networks. Specifically, we ensure privacy preservation by carefully embedding randomness in mixing weights to confuse communications and introducing an extra auxiliary parameter to mask the state-updated rule in several initial iterations. In parallel, we exploit the intrinsic robustness of consensus dynamics to guarantee that the average consensus is precisely achieved. Theoretical results demonstrate that the designed algorithms can converge linearly to the exact average consensus value and can guarantee privacy preservation of agents against both honest-but-curious and eavesdropping attacks. The designed algorithms are fundamentally different compared to differential privacy based algorithms that enable privacy preservation via sacrificing consensus performance. Finally, numerical experiments validate the correctness of the theoretical findings.
2D Forward Looking Sonar Simulation with Ground Echo Modeling
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2024
Year: 2024

Imaging sonar produces clear images in underwater environments, independent of water turbidity and lighting conditions. The next generation 2D forward looking sonars are compact in size and able to generate high-resolution images which facilitate underwater robotics research. Considering the difficulties and expenses of implementing experiments in underwater environments, tremendous work has been focused on sonar image simulation. However, sonar artifacts like multi-path reflection were not sufficiently discussed, which cannot be ignored in water tank environments. In this paper, we focus on the influence of echoes from the flat ground. We propose a method to simulate the ground echo effect physically in acoustic images. We model the multi-bounce situations using the single-bounce framework for computation efficiency. We compare the real image captured in the water tank with the synthetic images to validate the proposed methods.
Efficient and Effective Text Encoding for Chinese LLaMA and Alpaca
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT and GPT-4, have dramatically transformed natural language processing research and shown promising strides towards Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Nonetheless, the high costs associated with training and deploying LLMs present substantial obstacles to transparent, accessible academic research. While several large language models, such as LLaMA, have been open-sourced by the community, these predominantly focus on English corpora, limiting their usefulness for other languages. In this paper, we propose a method to augment LLaMA with capabilities for understanding and generating Chinese text and its ability to follow instructions. We achieve this by extending LLaMA's existing vocabulary with an additional 20,000 Chinese tokens, thereby improving its encoding efficiency and semantic understanding of Chinese. We further incorporate secondary pre-training using Chinese data and fine-tune the model with Chinese instruction datasets, significantly enhancing the model's ability to comprehend and execute instructions. Our experimental results indicate that the newly proposed model markedly enhances the original LLaMA's proficiency in understanding and generating Chinese content. Additionally, the results on the C-Eval dataset yield competitive performance among the models with several times the size of ours. We have made our pre-trained models, training scripts, and other resources available through GitHub, fostering open research for our community. Chinese LLaMA series: \url{https://github.com/ymcui/Chinese-LLaMA-Alpaca} and Chinese Llama-2 series: \url{https://github.com/ymcui/Chinese-LLaMA-Alpaca-2}
A Platform-Agnostic Deep Reinforcement Learning Framework for Effective Sim2Real Transfer towards Autonomous Driving
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) has shown remarkable success in solving complex tasks across various research fields. However, transferring DRL agents to the real world is still challenging due to the significant discrepancies between simulation and reality. To address this issue, we propose a robust DRL framework that leverages platform-dependent perception modules to extract task-relevant information and train a lane-following and overtaking agent in simulation. This framework facilitates the seamless transfer of the DRL agent to new simulated environments and the real world with minimal effort. We evaluate the performance of the agent in various driving scenarios in both simulation and the real world, and compare it to human players and the PID baseline in simulation. Our proposed framework significantly reduces the gaps between different platforms and the Sim2Real gap, enabling the trained agent to achieve similar performance in both simulation and the real world, driving the vehicle effectively.
Generalized Implicit Factorization Problem
Venue: arXiv cs.CR 2024
Year: 2024

The Implicit Factorization Problem was first introduced by May and Ritzenhofen at PKC'09. This problem aims to factorize two RSA moduli $N_1=p_1q_1$ and $N_2=p_2q_2$ when their prime factors share a certain number of least significant bits (LSBs). They proposed a lattice-based algorithm to tackle this problem and extended it to cover $k>2$ RSA moduli. Since then, several variations of the Implicit Factorization Problem have been studied, including the cases where $p_1$ and $p_2$ share some most significant bits (MSBs), middle bits, or both MSBs and LSBs at the same position. In this paper, we explore a more general case of the Implicit Factorization Problem, where the shared bits are located at different and unknown positions for different primes. We propose a lattice-based algorithm and analyze its efficiency under certain conditions. We also present experimental results to support our analysis.
Robotic Gas Source Localization with Probabilistic Mapping and Online Dispersion Simulation
Venue: arXiv cs.RO 2024
Year: 2024

Gas source localization (GSL) with an autonomous robot is a problem with many prospective applications, from finding pipe leaks to emergency-response scenarios. In this work, we present a new method to perform GSL in realistic indoor environments, featuring obstacles and turbulent flow. Given the highly complex relationship between the source position and the measurements available to the robot (the single-point gas concentration, and the wind vector) we propose an observation model that derives from contrasting the online, real-time simulation of the gas dispersion from any candidate source localization against a gas concentration map built from sensor readings. To account for a convenient and grounded integration of both into a probabilistic estimation framework, we introduce the concept of probabilistic gas-hit maps, which provide a higher level of abstraction to model the time-dependent nature of gas dispersion. Results from both simulated and real experiments show the capabilities of our current proposal to deal with source localization in complex indoor environments.
CodeKGC: Code Language Model for Generative Knowledge Graph Construction
Venue: arXiv cs.CL 2024
Year: 2024

Current generative knowledge graph construction approaches usually fail to capture structural knowledge by simply flattening natural language into serialized texts or a specification language. However, large generative language model trained on structured data such as code has demonstrated impressive capability in understanding natural language for structural prediction and reasoning tasks. Intuitively, we address the task of generative knowledge graph construction with code language model: given a code-format natural language input, the target is to generate triples which can be represented as code completion tasks. Specifically, we develop schema-aware prompts that effectively utilize the semantic structure within the knowledge graph. As code inherently possesses structure, such as class and function definitions, it serves as a useful model for prior semantic structural knowledge. Furthermore, we employ a rationale-enhanced generation method to boost the performance. Rationales provide intermediate steps, thereby improving knowledge extraction abilities. Experimental results indicate that the proposed approach can obtain better performance on benchmark datasets compared with baselines. Code and datasets are available in https://github.com/zjunlp/DeepKE/tree/main/example/llm.
Convergence of stochastic gradient descent under a local Lojasiewicz condition for deep neural networks
Venue: arXiv cs.LG 2024
Year: 2024

We study the convergence of stochastic gradient descent (SGD) for non-convex objective functions. We establish the local convergence with positive probability under the local Łojasiewicz condition introduced by Chatterjee in \cite{chatterjee2022convergence} and an additional local structural assumption of the loss function landscape. A key component of our proof is to ensure that the whole trajectories of SGD stay inside the local region with a positive probability. We also provide examples of neural networks with finite widths such that our assumptions hold.
An Ecosystem for Personal Knowledge Graphs: A Survey and Research Roadmap
Venue: arXiv cs.AI 2024
Year: 2024

This paper presents an ecosystem for personal knowledge graphs (PKGs), commonly defined as resources of structured information about entities related to an individual, their attributes, and the relations between them. PKGs are a key enabler of secure and sophisticated personal data management and personalized services. However, there are challenges that need to be addressed before PKGs can achieve widespread adoption. One of the fundamental challenges is the very definition of what constitutes a PKG, as there are multiple interpretations of the term. We propose our own definition of a PKG, emphasizing the aspects of (1) data ownership by a single individual and (2) the delivery of personalized services as the primary purpose. We further argue that a holistic view of PKGs is needed to unlock their full potential, and propose a unified framework for PKGs, where the PKG is a part of a larger ecosystem with clear interfaces towards data services and data sources. A comprehensive survey and synthesis of existing work is conducted, with a mapping of the surveyed work into the proposed unified ecosystem. Finally, we identify open challenges and research opportunities for the ecosystem as a whole, as well as for the specific aspects of PKGs, which include population, representation and management, and utilization.
DarSwin: Distortion Aware Radial Swin Transformer
Venue: arXiv cs.CV 2024
Year: 2024

Wide-angle lenses are commonly used in perception tasks requiring a large field of view. Unfortunately, these lenses produce significant distortions, making conventional models that ignore the distortion effects unable to adapt to wide-angle images. In this paper, we present a novel transformer-based model that automatically adapts to the distortion produced by wide-angle lenses. Our proposed image encoder architecture, dubbed DarSwin, leverages the physical characteristics of such lenses analytically defined by the radial distortion profile. In contrast to conventional transformer-based architectures, DarSwin comprises a radial patch partitioning, a distortion-based sampling technique for creating token embeddings, and an angular position encoding for radial patch merging. Compared to other baselines, DarSwin achieves the best results on different datasets with significant gains when trained on bounded levels of distortions (very low, low, medium, and high) and tested on all, including out-of-distribution distortions. While the base DarSwin architecture requires knowledge of the radial distortion profile, we show it can be combined with a self-calibration network that estimates such a profile from the input image itself, resulting in a completely uncalibrated pipeline. Finally, we also present DarSwin-Unet, which extends DarSwin, to an encoder-decoder architecture suitable for pixel-level tasks. We demonstrate its performance on depth estimation and show through extensive experiments that DarSwin-Unet can perform zero-shot adaptation to unseen distortions of different wide-angle lenses. The code and models are publicly available at https://lvsn.github.io/darswin/